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Topic: FIFA World Cups (Read 56509 times)

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #200
String won.
A matter of attitude.

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #201
Well I don't know about me winning, but I think Football/ Soccer is better off now that at last the prosecution of wrong-doings in FIFA are systematically being exposed.

The set up, suggested by some, seems to have been the awarding of large amounts of development funds to countries with little footballing infrastructure via the football representatives of those countries who then siphoned off their own bung. This seems to have been done by some members of the executive committee with apparent aquiescence by Blatter who could then rely on those same representatives for his own re-election.

I've written a number of times that I've not seen accusations of direct involvement in criminality levelled at Blatter himself but it's rather obvious that he should have known about such things and the charges now against him are, I think, to do with miss-governance. It is claimed, by the way, that his FIFA salary amounts to 7m$/year, or maybe It was 7m€ or 7m£ --- whatever!

One hopes that the next President of FIFA will be untainted and can do the job properly. If not I think many will get on his case.

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #202

It is claimed, by the way, that his FIFA salary amounts to 7m$/year, or maybe It was 7m€ or 7m£ --- whatever!

He probably takes his salaries in $, €, £, or CHF. Whichever looks best at the moment.

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #203
FIFA scandal was China's chance, says top sponsor

Quote



Wang's Dalian Wanda Group, China's biggest commercial property developer and an active buyer of global entertainment and sports companies, became the first Chinese top level sponsor of FIFA last week.

At a news conference in Beijing on Monday, the 61-year-old multi-billionaire said he expected other companies to follow suit to help drive China's ambition to become a soccer superpower.

"Two or three years ago, Chinese and Asian companies probably wouldn't even have had a chance to sponsor FIFA even if we wanted to. But because some western companies dropped out, we got the opportunity," he said.

"To my knowledge, another Chinese company will become a FIFA top sponsor soon. If there are no surprises, there will be three Chinese top-level sponsors by the end of the year.

"If more Chinese brother companies become FIFA sponsors like Wanda, we will join forces to advance the interests of China soccer," he added.

Led by China's President Xi Jinping, an avid soccer fan, China has embraced the goal of shedding decades of corruption and underperformance to become a major power in the game, aiming first to host the World Cup and then ultimately win it.

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #204
Belgians look mighty pissed that Japan is honestly beating them, totally different from Russia's lucky win over Spain.

Edit: Dang Belgium caught up and eventually won narrowly. Anyway, it was an interesting game to watch in full.

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #205
Go soccer! Woot!

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #206
My interest went with Iceland, but the Sweden/Mexico-South Korea/Germany combo was fascinating.


Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #208
France will win tonight. Just a prediction. Croatia has done well. It's a good country for tourists. Good ice cream :)

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #209
Go Croatia go!



Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #212
Still the most successful


Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #213
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been declared innocent of corruption. Specifically, a CHF 2m invoice was not fraudulent.

But the FIFA corruption scandal was much bigger than mentioned in the news this time. It involved marketing rights in Americas, World Cup events awarded to South Africa, Qatar and Russia, and elections of FIFA president. Not cleared of all of it, are they? Or is really only the invoice payment between Platini and Blatter in the courts?

Re: FIFA World Cups

Reply #214
Last time when Qatar was awarded the world cup, a huge scandal followed that led to the resignation of several important VIPs at Fifa and ensuing corruption lawsuits. The lesson that Fifa learned from this: Let's do it again!

According to this opinion piece (in Finnish), in the current world cup Qatar is leading 3-0 against Fifa:
1. The event is held towards the end of the year, not during the summer of northern hemisphere. The timing of the event was a wrestle between Fifa and the host country, and the host country won. The opinion of the players (stemming from the traditional competition rhythm it's in the players' DNA to exert themselves most during Euro-Anglo-American summer vacations) was not heard.
2. Qatar-Ecuador match was transferred to an earlier date to become the first match of the event, so that Qatar would get all the attention of the world at the start of the event.
3. Beer is banned as per Qatar's laws. In contrast, when Brazil was the host in 2014, Fifa made it clear that beer was non-negotiable, i.e. Fifa's main economic raison d'être is to launder money for Budweiser and Brazil must change their laws to accommodate, so Brazil did so. But vis-a-vis Qatar it turned out that beer was negotiable after all.

This is now the second match Fifa is losing against Qatar. What a loser.